Glace Verte
{will return to continue on 27/10/18} Glace Verte is a planet inhabited by humans descended from the survivors of three spatially displaced trains that were travelling from France to Belgium in 1854. Its culture developed independently and divergent from that of earth until they once again made contact in 2183, and joined the Federation in 2224. Glace Verte maintains one of the largest and most sophisticated ground-level railroad networks in the Alpha Quadrant, and also holds the rare distinction of being permitted to implant its citizens with cybernetics, despite being human, due to the deep religious significance of the specific variety of implants utilized. History Exodus In 1854, three trains from Amiens to Mons carrying 1159 passengers of mostly French and Belgian nationality was derailed and found itself in a strange territory none of the survivors could identify. 27 died in the crash, and forty more in the first six months. The cause of the derailment was unclear, and the tracks were nowhere to be seen for many kilometers in every direction. When night fell a farmer noticed the constellations were even different. Over the first several weeks, they lived out of the less damaged train cars. No trees were found, so they rationed out their coal supply best they could to cook the food they foraged. But when the coal ran low they finally had to risk eating the roots, leaves, and berries raw. Later that year they moved their settlement to under an overhanging mountainside. In 1861, they found a coal deposit close enough to start mining. And by the mid 1870s they'd created a rudimentary railway connecting the three settlements. The forming church organization took a leading role in this process, and increased greatly in influence after. Rising tectonic activity destabilized the mountain starting in the 1890s. Several houses were struck by falling debris, or swallowed by sinkholes. A young man named Benjamin Girard proposed a solution, that was enacted with the support of the church between 1899 and 1913. The buildings under the mountain were raised on jacks and scaffolds, tracks laid underneath, and the whole town was locomoted to safety. The methods used in this endeavor rapidly became the standard to which all rails were built, and with the proof of concept in place, most buildings were modified or rebuilt on tracks. As the rail network grew, it was shaped to support this practice. New mechanisms were designed to allow tracks to supply plumbing and eventually electricity in the mid 1920s. Tracks could also be redirected and rotated on the power of the oncoming cars. Also in the 1910s, the religious concept of une trinite de neuf, the Trinity of Nine, was solidified. And people began to form platonic lifelong extramarital partnerships, an enracinement (rootship). The belief being that someone's spouse would spiritually elevate them, while their racine (root partner) would prevent them from falling. Both being essential to a healthy soul. Benjamin Girard died in 1931. His husband and his racine both reported his final days were spent locked in a study tinkering with wires and electroluminescent algae. When he was found to have died, he had written in large lettering on the wall, "My curiosity is left to you to solve." After studying the devices in the study, his racine, Benjamin Couillard, would follow to invent the transistor in 1934. The nature of the rail network made publicly usable computers a reality by 1941. Initially the size of small houses, they would locomote to the tracks behind or alongside the homes or workplaces that needed them. A new boom of industry and expansion began. (placeholder) Graine The 1980s saw a wave of interest in connecting human minds to computers directly. Several interfaces were attempted, but none were successful. In 1999, the first experimental computerized telepathic interface was created. Instead of trying to interpret the language of thought on the computer end, it connected two minds and allowed them to communicate with and interpret each other. It was a massive machine that rendered the pair of linked humans irreparably immobilized from the neck down. But the data gathered allowed the technology to develop and miniaturize. In 2018, the technology was approved by the church for public use. Bulky box-like protrusions from the skull on both temples, the forehead, and base of the skull. When plugged in with cables, two minds could hear each other think, see each other's senses, and even access the other's memories and knowledge. The implants were called graines. The seed of knowledge. (placeholder) First Contact In 2140, Glace Verte launched its first starship. Nine years into their journey, an Andorian vessel intercepted them and asked if their Warp engines had broken or been stolen. Upon discovering they didn't have Warp drive, the Andorian commander gifted them the technology and escorted them back to their homeworld to deliver it after it was installed. (placeholder) Reunion (placeholder) Religion The religion is a variation on the Abrahamic tradition, particularly Christianity. The concept of the holy trinity was expanded into that of the Trinity of Nine. God ceased to be represented as a cohesive entity, instead taking the form of a manifestation of all the universe. The Father representing Heaven, The Son representing death, and The Holy Ghost representing the human soul. And each in turn being divided into a trinity of their own. Trinity of Soul The religion of Glace Verte believes that every human soul exists in three parts, representing the mortal realm, heaven, and hell respectively. The self, the love, and the racine (root). Spouses are considered to have given their love to each other. And although the racine can be planted on an ideology or goal, it is considered at its strongest when placed with another person. When this is done an equivalent ceremony to marriage is held, the enracinement, in which the graines of the two are also linked. The role of a marriage is to spiritually elevate both spouses, bringing them joy and wisdom. The role of the racine is to support the self, and prevent it from falling into misery and ignorance. A soul is not considered truly complete if it stands alone. Trinity of Heaven (placeholder) Trinity of Death Three deaths face every person in the undiscovered country. The first, the divine death, when a person grows or improves as a person for the final time in the mortal realm. The second, the death of self, when their mind is lost to the void and thinks its last thought. The final death only occurs when the last person thinks about them, even impersonally. The church keeps a many-volumes list of every person who has either lived on Glace Verte or joined the church since the original train crash, as well as their ancestors and descendants to the extent that external records allow. Even if no name is known, they'll still list someone by whatever information is known, even if only a family connection. And priests regularly meditate on these volumes, reading each name thoughtfully, for the purpose of postponing their final deaths indefinitely. Technology (placeholder) Graine (placeholder) Rails (placeholder) Category:Planets Category:Earth settlements Category:Culture Category:Colonies